Meet The Newsday Presenters

Nkem began his journalistic career as an undercover reporter in the UK, working on TV documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC.

Nkem freelanced on various newspapers before joining the BBC World Service in 2006, first in the newsroom, then reporting for TV and radio. He joined Newsday in 2014 after two years with the Business Unit. His passion is football reporting, and he got to cover the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, and the World Cup in Germany later that year.

Nkem stumbled upon journalism while studying engineering at university. His plan had been to go to drama school and become an actor, but he became side-tracked by journalism and has remained distracted ever since.

Alan’s journalistic career started in his late teens, when he joined Uganda's New Vision newspaper as a freelance writer and photographer.

His began working at Sanyu FM in Kampala in the mid-1990s. He also worked at Capital FM in Nairobi, Kenya, before returning to Uganda to present the Big Breakfast on Capital FM in Kampala.

Alan has also made his name as a television presenter – he hosted Uganda's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? He anchored The Fourth Estate, an influential political talk show in Uganda.

Alan is a keen photographer and when it comes to football, he is a committed Arsenal supporter.

For the past 15 years, Bola has presented BBC Network Africa, a breakfast programme broadcast every weekday airing African news, sport, music and features.

She also presents and produces the African news and current affairs programme, Focus on Africa. She co-produced The Story of Africa, a 21 part narrative history of the continent broadcast on BBC World Service.

Bola has a keen interest in the arts and in gender issues. Hailing from Nigeria, she was raised in both London and Lagos. Bola studied Peace and Conflict studies in Northern Ireland and is married with three children.

Lawrence worked for several years as the culture correspondent for BBC World Service, before presenting the World Today daily news show.

Among his recent assignments were politics in Havana, economic catastrophe in Las Vegas and film in Ouagadougou.

Lawrence has worked across BBC radio news and television, as a producer and presenter on a wide variety of channels. Before joining us, Lawrence worked in in local radio, and taught and studied art. He lives in London.

Having worked for various programmes on BBC World Service, including Europe Today and Newshour, since 1998 Julian has been one of the voices listeners wake up to when tuning in to the World Today.

Julian joined the BBC in 1988, starting out serving a BBC apprenticeship in the French Service, regularly reporting on and from francophone Africa. He is married with three children and lives in Toulouse, South-western France where he commutes from to London every week.